Bikes Of Burden

Bikes of Burden (2017) – Hans Kemp
Visionary World | ISBN: 9789881655714
Condition: Near Fine | Sold by Crappy Old Books

The motorcycle. To some, it represents freedom, adventure and the exhilarating sensation of travelling through the countryside with the wind in one’s face. To others, it’s a noisy contraption ridden by people who apparently consider speed limits to be advisory suggestions. But in Vietnam, the humble motorbike has developed an altogether more remarkable identity: that of a family car, delivery van, removal lorry, livestock transporter and occasionally an entire mobile department store.

Welcome to Bikes of Burden, Hans Kemp’s wonderfully entertaining photographic celebration of Vietnamese ingenuity, where the laws of physics are apparently treated as interesting suggestions and the manufacturer’s recommended carrying capacity is regarded as an unnecessarily pessimistic opinion.

Kemp, a photographer with a keen eye for the extraordinary hiding within everyday life, documents the astonishing loads transported through Vietnam’s streets on small motorcycles and scooters. Mountains of vegetables, towering stacks of boxes, household furniture, construction materials and quantities of merchandise that would normally require a respectable commercial vehicle somehow find themselves balanced upon two wheels and propelled through traffic.

The results are frequently hilarious, occasionally alarming and consistently remarkable.

What makes these photographs so fascinating is that their subjects aren’t performing elaborate stunts for the amusement of tourists. They’re simply getting on with their working lives. A delivery needs making, goods need transporting, and a motorbike happens to be available. Why waste valuable time arranging a lorry when the entire contents of a furniture showroom can apparently be persuaded to travel on a Honda?

Kemp’s images capture the practical ingenuity of people making the most of limited resources, transforming everyday transportation into something approaching an art form. Each precariously balanced cargo represents a triumph of improvisation, determination and an apparently unshakeable faith in the structural integrity of small Japanese motorcycles.

There is also something deeply satisfying about seeing the humble scooter achieve feats that would make a European health-and-safety inspector reach instinctively for the nearest clipboard. Western motorists complain when they cannot fit their weekly shopping into the boot of a large estate car. Here, somebody appears perfectly capable of transporting an entire agricultural harvest on a machine originally designed to carry one person and a modest lunch.

Yet Bikes of Burden is more than a collection of amusing transport photographs. It offers a vivid glimpse into Vietnamese street life, commerce and the everyday inventiveness that sustains a bustling economy. The crowded roads, improbable cargoes and resourceful riders create a fascinating portrait of a society constantly in motion.

This 2017 Visionary World edition, offered in Near Fine condition by Crappy Old Books, is a delightful acquisition for photography enthusiasts, travellers, motorcycle lovers and anyone fascinated by the extraordinary solutions people devise to perfectly ordinary problems.

A colourful, humorous and wonderfully observant tribute to the motorbike as the ultimate multipurpose vehicle.

And the next time somebody tells you that you need to hire a van to move a wardrobe, show them this book.

Apparently all you really need is a small motorcycle, several lengths of rope and an exceptionally optimistic attitude towards gravity.

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